Nuclear Waste
A CALL to have a fresh look at an invitation to store nuclear waste in Cornwall has been scrapped with opponents claiming it as a victory for people power. One of the leading campaigners against the nuclear waste plans said that the dozens of comments left by readers at www.thisiscornwall.co.uk in response to stories on the website and in its sister newspapers the Cornish Guardian and West Briton had played a part in forcing the u-turn by councillors. As first broken by thisiscornwall.co.uk, three councillors had supported a request to call-in the decision not to take up an invitation to submit an expression of interest to the Government to have a nuclear waste storage facility in Cornwall.
West Briton 12th Jan 2009 more >>
Nuclear Smuggling
Two British businessmen, a father and son, were yesterday blacklisted by the US government for their alleged involvement in the world’s worst illicit nuclear proliferation racket. Peter Griffin, a 73-year-old believed to be living in the south of France, and his son, Paul, 44, were among 13 individuals and three companies named by the US state department and treasury for involvement in the nuclear smuggling network headed by the disgraced Pakistani metallurgist, Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Guardian 13th Jan 2009 more >>
Telegraph 13th Jan 2009 more >>
New Nukes
The Government will be on stronger ground today when the focus turns to the potential for creating thousands of “green collar” jobs. Britain’s ageing energy infrastructure is falling apart. Replacing our crumbling, dirty power stations with modern nuclear reactors, wind and tidal power schemes will be a huge challenge. It also represents a great opportunity.
Times 13th Jan 2009 more >>
Scotland
As negotiations between government and opposition parties continue ahead of this week’s vote on the Scottish Budget, the Greens have released figures showing the huge impact their free insulation plans would have on the economy. The party has been campaigning through the website warmscotland.org for an ambitious 10-year scheme to provide free insulation for every home in Scotland. They say that by spending 100m a year to do the job, this investment would be repaid many times over not just in terms of savings per household, particularly those facing fuel poverty, but in the contribution to the country’s carbon emissions target.
Herald 12th Jan 2009 more >>
Nuclear Testing
France has committed $80m to clean up its nuclear testing base in Polynesia.
Mathaba 13th Jan 2009 more >>
Radhealth
The rooms in Manchester University’s Rutherford building, used at the start of the 20th century by Ernest Rutherford for nuclear experiments, as well as the rooms directly below them, are proving desperately unlucky places. Professor Tom Whiston, 70, is the latest former occupant of one of these rooms to develop terminal pancreatic cancer. Two of his former colleagues have died recently of pancreatic cancer: Dr Hugh Wagner, who died in 2007 aged 62, and Dr Arthur Reader, who died last year aged 69. In all three men, the illness progressed fast.
Guardian 13th Jan 2009 more >>
Douglas Holdstock, who has died aged 75, was a worker for peace, all the more so because he was a scientist who understood the implications of nuclear weapons. He qualified as a doctor at University College Hospital Medical School in 1959 and, in 1971, became consultant physician and gastroenterologist at Ashford hospital, Middlesex. Throughout his career he worked tirelessly for the National Health Service, often challenging more financially eager fellow consultants.
Guardian 13th Jan 2009 more >>
France
France’s vast nuclear power network has largely shielded it from the Russian gas crisis, handing the country’s atomic energy sector an unexpected public relations coup.
Yahoo 12th Jan 2009 more >>
Slovakia
The European Commission warned Slovakia Monday that its decision to reactivate an old nuclear reactor runs counter to EU law and was “not an option.”If the Slovakian government reactivates the Bohunice nuclear plant “that would be a clear violation” of the treaty that Bratislava signed to become an EU member, said commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas.
Yahoo 12th Jan 2009 more >>
Slovakia has turned on a nuclear reactor that it was forced to shut down last year as the country struggled to supply its population with energy amid the Russian gas row.
Daily Mail 12th Jan 2009 more >>
Slovakia, which is dependent on Russian gas, said it would have to restart its decommissioned Chernobyl-design reactor at Bohunice, near the border with Austria, because it had received no supplies since Thursday. The nuclear plant is widely viewed as unsafe and its closure was one of the conditions for Slovakia joining the EU in 2004.
Guardian 13th Jan 2009 more >>
US
Barron’s late on Sunday said that nuclear stocks could rise as the incoming Obama administration pushes for energy sources that don’t emit greenhouse gases. “Nuclear power is in a renaissance,” the financial publication wrote, quoting MIT research affiliate Tom Neff.
Reuters 12th Jan 2009 more >>
Renewables
A market worth more than £50bn will be created for new wind, wave and tidal power equipment in British waters by 2020, the head of the new government-backed energy research and development group has said. David Clarke, chief executive of the Energy Technologies Institute, will on Tuesday launch the first four projects backed by the group, which aims to encourage the commercial development of low-carbon energy sources including renewables, electric vehicles and power stations that capture and store carbon dioxide emissions.
FT 13th Jan 2009 more >>
Trident
While the heavy work of shipbuilding goes on around the Barrow site, engineers have their eyes of the next project – the replacement to Trident submarines.
Engineer 12th Jan 2009 more >>
